|
a CREOLE article
Cultures
of Acadiana |
Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, May 25, 1999
Toussaint claimed heritage from African king
by Jim Bradshaw
According to legend, Toussaint Louverture, the leader who helped to bring about the liberatoin of Haiti, was the descendant of an African king. His real name was given the name Louverture while leading the slave revolt. L'Ouverture means "opening, and he seemed always to be able to find the opening in the enemy's defenses.
In her biography of Toussaint, "This Gilded African, " Wenda Parkinson gives this account of his ancestry: "Two leagues from Le Cap there lay the sugar estate L'Habitation Breda, owned by the Comte de Noé...on the outskirts (of which) lived, among the 1,000 slaves who worked the estate, a man who was privileged above the rest, a man who had been singled out by his master. ...He was the second son of an African king, King Goau-Guinou of the Aradas tribe. As a young man he had been taken in a tribal battle and sold by his captors...to a Portuguese slave trader. ...The young prince's inherent authority must have made (an) ...impression on the Comte (who bought the slave in Saint-Domingue). ...He granted him immediately the 'liberte de savanne,' a partial freedom that allowed the slave, although sill the property of his master, liberty within the confines of the estate to live his own life. The young prince was apportioned a parcel of land and given five slaves of his won to work for him. In the enclosed world of the sugar estate he was a man of some position.
"The ...prince accepted his new life and, with the encouragement of his master, decided to take a wife. He chose a girl from his own tribe who was ...beautiful, lively, and intelligent. ...The new bride, Pauline, bore her husband five children (including) Toussaint ...born on May 20 perhaps in 1743 or 1746, for the birth of slaves was casually recorded.
"By the time he was twelve (Toussaint) was already famous for his horsemanship. ...He was to become known throughout the colony as the 'Centaur of the Savannahs.' He rode tirelessly, at one with his mount, and even in middle age he could ride 125 miles and more a day and dismount with the same light agility as he had when he leapt into the saddle."
According to Parkinson, his godfather, Pierre Baptiste, had a major influence over the young Toussaint.
"Baptiste worked in the hospital run by the Fathers of Charity. One of the priests, a Fater Lusembourg, was impressed by his intelligence and encouraged (Baptiste) to learn to read and write, thereby breaking an unwritten law in the colony, where it was thought not only sensible but essential to maintain a slave's ignorance. The priest also instilled in him devout belief in Christianity. Baptiste in turn passed on his read, although he never learned to write pure French, writing to the end of his life in phonetic Creole. he devoured any book available. ...The most well-thumbed book (in his own library in later years) was Epicetus, who was also born a slave."
Toussaint was apparently something of a womanizer in his youth. He did not marry until he was nearly 40. His bride was Suzanne Simone Baptiste, the daughter of his godfather. According to Parkinson, "his love for Suzanne lasted all his life; although he was not faithful to her he loved her tenderly. She was an abiding anchor in his life; her calm simplicity and lack of pretension sustained and satisfied him."
Toussaint was nearly 50 when the slave revolution began on Saint-Domingue, and nearly 60 when he was finally forced into a French prison and to his death by Napoléon Bonaparte's army.
According to an account in the London Times in May 1803, "he was buried in a vault of the small chapel of St. Pierre attached to the for (where he had been held prisoner). The grave was unmarked, but not long after his death the old concierge of the fort, when showing a visitor around, pointed to the floor of the chapel and said, "There lies buried here below the King of Blacks."